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Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Before/After: Thinking in Black & White

Sometimes on shoots that I've worked on, the pictures shot end up printed in Black & White and it's often a case of a mix of both B&W and colour. So I think it's interesting when I'm told before hand that the magazine wanted a full B&W shoot. Why interesting? Because I can tailor the makeup to work specifically for the end result. If you research the history of film, makeup was orginally designed for B&W film and as a result came about the concept of contouring and highlighting.

Seeing as my jewellery shoot was going to be in full B&W, I wanted to introduce some heavy contouring but done in a modern way and using modern textures. Now switching into B&W mode, everything in the photo will come out as Black and White and shades of Grey. I wanted the eyes to be natural but yet still have shadow. When I mean shadow, I don't mean the cosmetic kind. I wanted a soft shading to happen in the eye area, as if she's wearing a hat and the sun is casting a beautiful shadow under her eyes! I could have done a full black lip but I wanted a muted black-grey and definitely not a solid sharp line. I wanted the lipstick and lip line to blend and blur into a soft seamless edge. Why? No reason but aesthetically I find it more pleasing and also softer. Less S&M and more beautiful but still strong. Anyway a picture is worth a thousand words so let me show you what I mean.

What do you think? See how the soft undetectable shading round the eyes all of a sudden become dramatic in B&W? I also wanted something dramatic for the nails and I am so not a nail artist! So I enlisted the help and talent of Sabrina Gayle. This was the first time I worked with Sabrina and a few days before the shoot I emailed her and discussed the look with her and she immediately went to work mocking up some samples of what she thought would look great for the brief. Immediately I was impressed at her enthusiasm and style. On the day itself, she worked quietly while Georgina had her hair set and done. When I came back, I literally had to control myself from swooning at her handiwork! Have a look, I think Sabrina's nails brought another dimension to the results.

You can follow and admire Sabrina's work here.I'm so thrilled with the results and cannot wait to see it all published! As always I'd love to hear your comments and questions!

Hi thanks for the lovely comment. I used a big duo fibre fluffy foundation brush to buff in very very thin layers till I get the texture and results I want. Not hard at all, all about fine layers. Let me know how you get on! x